Is "Christian Prayer" (LOTH) valid for official use in Canada?

[Malcolm]

I recently purchased “Christian Prayer” planning to try just the Morning & Evening Prayers . Being able to participate in the offering of some of the official prayers of the Church is very appealing to me but if this book isn’t authorised for official use in Canada would I have to get the 4 volume set ? (I’m pretty sure that one is authorised for use in Canada).

I hope I’ve phrased the question clearly enough for someone to help me with this.

 

[porthos11]

Christian Prayer is fully approved for use in Canada.

 

[Todd_Easton]

My large-print edition of “Christian Prayer,” which, on the title page, says, “Approved for Use in the Dioceses of the United States of America by the National Conference of Catholic Bishops and Confirmed by the Apostolic See,” has the following notice on the copyright page:

This Edition is also approved by the Episcopal Conferences of The Antilles, Bangladesh, Burma, Canada, of the Pacific CEPAC (Fiji Islands, Rarotonga, Samoa and Tokelau, Tonga), Ghana, India, Malaysia-Singapore, New Zealand, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea and The Solomons, The Philippines, Rhodesia, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, and Uganda.

 

[Malcolm]

This is great news , thank you! Amazon says my copy should arrive tomorrow so I’m “chuffed” as the British might say.

Does “fully approved” mean even the Daytime prayers , Office of the Readings, etc are also approved or just the more extant Morning and Evening prayers ? I got the impression from watching YouTube videos that the MP and EP were more or less identical to those in the four volume version but the others were somehow truncated ?

 

[GordonP]

Does “fully approved” mean even the Daytime prayers , Office of the Readings, etc are also approved or just the more extant Morning and Evening prayers ?

As a layman, you are not obligated to pray the Liturgy of the Hours. For laymen, it is an optional private devotional practice. As such, you are not obligated to use the official version that is currently in use in your geographical area. You can choose any version you like, current or historical, in any language, and use it in whole or in part, daily or occasionally, at any time of the day or night.

“Official” applies only to clerics who are obligated to pray the hours, not to laymen.

Here is a good article that (sorta) explains it:

http://www.ewtn.com/library/liturgy/zlitur503.htm

 

[Malcolm]

Many have discovered the personal spiritual benefits that derive from this treasure of sprinkling the day with moments of prayer and praise in union with the entire Church. Since this is the Church’s official prayer it is also an exercise of the royal priesthood of the faithful and genuine active participation in the Church’s liturgy

This is what I would like but if it’s really just a private personal devotion using any version or part then I guess that’s as good as I can do.

 

[GordonP]

just a private personal devotion using any version or part then I guess that’s as good as I can do.

Actually, by doing that you are praying in union with the whole Church, regardless of which version you use and what time you pray. “In union” doesn’t mean “using the exact same words at the exact same time”. The prayer is eternal and timeless.

Even clerics do not pray the Hours at the exact same time using the exact same words. They pray according to relative geographical time, and use versions approved for local use.

 

[Malcolm]

Even clerics do not pray the Hours at the exact same time using the exact same words. They pray according to relative geographical time, and use versions approved for local use.

So if the truncated versions in “Christian Prayer” are “fully approved” for local use in Canada then “ince this is the Church’s official prayer it is also an exercise of the royal priesthood of the faithful and genuine active participation in the Church’s liturgy” ?

 

[GordonP]

it is also an exercise of the royal priesthood of the faithful and genuine active participation in the Church’s liturgy” ?

As a layperson, using any version, modern or historical, from any region, in full or in part, is an exercise of the royal priesthood of the faithful and genuine active participation in the Church’s liturgy.

By the way, the Liturgy of the Hours after Trent are a truncated version of the earlier, and very elaborate and lengthy, medieval monastic Hours. Originally, the Hours were prayed only by choir monks and canons of cathedrals and collegiate churches. And they were prayed exclusively in a group, and not on one’s own. And they were always chanted, never said. It took up about eight hours of their day, and boften more. On top of that, there was the Laus perennia, whereby some monasteries prayed continuously between the hours, with some monks taking shifts to relieve others.

Other clerics were not obligated to pray them. They simply did not have the time, or the resources, and often lacked the ability to read Latin.

In the later middle ages, as some monks began to spend time outside of the monastery more, they developed truncated versions called breviaries to carry with them on their travels so they could pray in private.

Also, a parallel set of Hours called the Little Hours of Our Lady came into fashion among other clerics who were not monks or canons.

Trent regularized the process by making a truncated Breviary obligatory for all clerics, monastic, canonic and parochial, except for monastic groups that had their own established hours for more than 200 years.

 

[Malcolm]

As a layperson, using any version, modern or historical, from any region, in full or in part, is an exercise of the royal priesthood of the faithful and genuine active participation in the Church’s liturgy.

Thanks GordonP , it’s all good now !

 

[phil19034]

The Christian Prayer book by Catholic Book Publishing has complete Morning, Evening and Night Prayers. It also has all the Psalms for the Office of Readings - but doesn’t have all the readings. And it only has 1 week of Psalms for Daytime Prayer.

However, if you bought this out of print version from the Daughters of St Paul, then you will have the complete Daytime Prayer (version with updated cover here or in black with gold gilding here)

But if you do have the Catholic Book Publishing version and not the version from the Daughters of St. Paul, you can also buy the Daytime Prayer book so you can have all the Daytime Prayers too

Personally, I have both the Daughters of St. Paul and the Catholic Book Publishing versions. I like the Daughters of St. Paul better, but the CBP version has the annual ordo booklet so I know what pages to be on when I have a question.

For me, since my Daughters of St. Paul edition is older, I use that one at home, I leave my Daytime Prayer book at work, I travel with my CBP Christian Prayer book in my computer bag and I keep a copy of Night Prayer (which is just the Night Prayer) in my night stand. I bought Night Prayer to use in bed without having to worry about bringing my other breviaries into my bed.

Enjoy and God bless

 

[MikeInVA]

truncated versions in “Christian Prayer”

Morning, Evening and Night Prayer are not truncated. There is a limited selection for the Office of Readings, but Christian Praye is really not intended for that office.

 

[Malcolm]

I didn’t know “Daytime Prayer” existed - just ordered it !

thank you

 

[OraLabora]

By the way, the Liturgy of the Hours after Trent are a truncated version of the earlier, and very elaborate and lengthy, medieval monastic Hours.

That didn’t happen after Trent. The breviary after Trent was still the same length as the Monastic Office. But by the 19th century many clerics were praying small Votive offices by indult.

Pius X thus promulgated his shorter and innovative breviary in 1910. It reduced the length of the Office from 250 psalms a week with many repetitions, to 150 with no repetitions. Further reform led to the Liturgy of the Hours in 1970.

I should point out that when non-obligated laity pray it, it isn’t a private devotion but is genuine liturgy in unity with the Church if using approved texts. So it’s worth the effort to go an extra mile to do so.

 

[KMG]

The wise and learned Father John Hunwicke has a good suggested rule of thumb to determine whether a change in liturgy is organic or not.

Can you continue to use the old books, with the aid of a supplement?

I’d add, what decrees of approbation still appear in the front of the book?

For all the occasional talk of how “innovative” the Pius X breviary was, it was still substantively the breviary that had existed for centuries.

A new “Psalterium Romanum” booklet was published (I have a copy) that allowed continued use of old breviaries, with the new supplement.

Obviously over time accretions, etc. render the appearance of new books advantageous. But all the breviaries published through 1961 continued to bear the title page of Pius V.

Liturgia Horarum…merits aside (and it has considerable merits) at least had the intellectual honesty not to pretend it was still the Roman breviary. It’s a completely new book that borrows some texts from existing breviaries of different uses/rites…but is mostly novel.

It’s vintage committee work, which may yield real merits. But organic it is not.

As for the psalter, at least in principle…if not in practice…the Roman breviary retained the structure of the entire psalter in a week, until Paul VI.

Personally, I don’t care as much about dividing the psalms up into four weeks (though a week has mystical significance and four weeks does not). Cutting verses of psalms, or even entire psalms, which we find a tad too “mean” is another matter entirely, and probably one that history will judge harshly.

 

[Malcolm]

I should point out that when non-obligated laity pray it, it isn’t a private devotion but is genuine liturgy in unity with the Church if using approved texts. So it’s worth the effort to go an extra mile to do so.

Yes this was exactly my original concern - if some authority decided only the 4 volumes are approved then I would get them but if “Christian Prayer” and “Daytime Prayer” are also approved for Canada I will use them until they approve and print the new translations.

Does anyone know when the new translations might appear?

 

[OraLabora]

Does anyone know when the new translations might appear?

« Soon ». Which has its own meaning when said by an organization that is eternal

Rumour has it somewhere between now and a couple of years. I haven’t been following closely as I use Latin and French for the LOTH.